The greatest drawback
to the effect of the whole is the change in the architectural treatment
and decorations. The lower part belongs to the period when the work was
begun in 1505, and the upper, with no transition but a joint in the stone,
to the heavier and coarser style of the period when it was finished, 1545.
The jointing and the masonry generally are not of a satisfactory
character,(155) and Michael Angelo's assistants cannot be congratulated
upon the way they did their share of the work. With the exception of the
figures of Active and Contemplative Life, the work of the assistants would
be better away.
The two bound captives which were too big for the altered monument are now
the glory of the Italian sculpture galleries of the Louvre. They were
presented by Michael Angelo to Roberto degli Strozzi, because, when the
sculptor was ill in 1544, Luigi del Riccio, his friend, nursed him and
looked after him in the Strozzi Palace. They were taken to France and
offered to the King of France, who gave them to the Connetable de
Montmorenci; they were placed by him in Ecouen. They were bought for the
French nation by M. Lenoir when the Republic put them up for sale in 1793.
Four unfinished colossal figures, which still appear to be wrenching
themselves from their prison of stone, now lurk in the corners of a
repulsive grotto in the Boboli Gardens. They are supposed to have been
also for the Tomb of Julius. Heath Wilson suggests that they may have been
intended for the facade of San Lorenzo.
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